a bit about us…..

The question we hear the most is : how did you find this place ? And we answer : on internet….. which is true in itself, but it’s not the answer people want of course. Actually they want to know why and how we could leave our comfortable lives in the Netherlands. Lots of people don’t understand how you can leave everything behind and start a new life.

But just that is so wonderful ! When we moved to France 20 years ago we did not know what to expect, we hardly spoke French, had never worked in a restaurant or bed and breakfast. It is so exciting to start all over, difficult of course, but so energising and an unforgettable experience. We bought an auberge in the Allier first, a café, restaurant and we created 4 rooms for bed and breakfast. We met a lot of new people, we started singing in a choir right away (we had not sang before….) just to meet people and make new friends. The café attracted loads of neighbours (in the country you are still a neighbour at 10 km), who were curious about these strange Dutch people. So in a very short time we knew a lot of people. We had a ‘butchers’ evening’ every Friday, when the ambulant butcher stopped at our place, people came to buy meat and then had a few (or more) drinks, we did that for years. And it was a very good way to learn French ! Petra also had some jobs to survive the long winters.

And then 6 years ago we sold the auberge and moved to the Puy de Dôme, where there are more tourists, we rented a big house. And we recreated a new bed and breakfast, with a large garden and swimming pool in the summer, there is skiing in the winter. We have the most beautiful view on the volcanoe Puy de Dôme. We hope to continue this for some time yet.

If this makes you want to come and stay with us, please do ! We hope to see you soon ! Kind regards,